Everyone who wish to seriously study the idea of anarchism begins with a simple question seldom raised on discussions: Do we really need government?
The most common answer people give is "no, no we can't". When you think about government what is the first thing that comes in your mind? In my mind, the basic task of government, and probably the main reason why people think we can't live without it, is the task of setting the "rules of the game". Rules, enforceable rules are what government imposes to every single one of us. If you don't respect the rules, you'll suffer some kind of penalty.
Most people think rules are very much necessary. If we didn't have rules enforced by some kind of authority, then chaos would exist. So, there you go. That is why people we need the State. Many philosophers, Hobbes for instance, believed that if people were let on their on, then it would be a war of everyone against everyone. The State would emerge from this chaos to put things in order.
The question we libertarians ask is simple: Is Hobbes right? Do we really always need rules that are imposed upon people? Take a conversation among friends, for instance. Is there any kind of rules there? Why is that when someone is speaking, the others tend to listen? Who establishes the time that each friend is entitle to speak? Is there a judge? The dynamic of the conversation seem to follow a path which was design by no one. There aren't any rules, yet conversation seems to occur without any problems. We find out then that we live in a world that is not made only by rules. Our world is a mixture of rules and anarchy.
Anarchy, surprisingly for some, seems to work fine in many circumstances. People seem to follow not rules, but moral codes to witch there are no enforcers, no police. Individuals who voluntary accept to follow such codes gather themselves with individuals that follow this same code. The result is order. Order emerging out of anarchy. People of the same community, who share the same moral values, will behave in and orderly fashion without any rule imposed on them, the same way friends engage in conversation or decide what movie to watch.
This blog is design to study such ideas and discuss them.
The most common answer people give is "no, no we can't". When you think about government what is the first thing that comes in your mind? In my mind, the basic task of government, and probably the main reason why people think we can't live without it, is the task of setting the "rules of the game". Rules, enforceable rules are what government imposes to every single one of us. If you don't respect the rules, you'll suffer some kind of penalty.
Most people think rules are very much necessary. If we didn't have rules enforced by some kind of authority, then chaos would exist. So, there you go. That is why people we need the State. Many philosophers, Hobbes for instance, believed that if people were let on their on, then it would be a war of everyone against everyone. The State would emerge from this chaos to put things in order.
The question we libertarians ask is simple: Is Hobbes right? Do we really always need rules that are imposed upon people? Take a conversation among friends, for instance. Is there any kind of rules there? Why is that when someone is speaking, the others tend to listen? Who establishes the time that each friend is entitle to speak? Is there a judge? The dynamic of the conversation seem to follow a path which was design by no one. There aren't any rules, yet conversation seems to occur without any problems. We find out then that we live in a world that is not made only by rules. Our world is a mixture of rules and anarchy.
Anarchy, surprisingly for some, seems to work fine in many circumstances. People seem to follow not rules, but moral codes to witch there are no enforcers, no police. Individuals who voluntary accept to follow such codes gather themselves with individuals that follow this same code. The result is order. Order emerging out of anarchy. People of the same community, who share the same moral values, will behave in and orderly fashion without any rule imposed on them, the same way friends engage in conversation or decide what movie to watch.
This blog is design to study such ideas and discuss them.
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